In regards to eating meat

[Tenet Nosce]

I think there is always a problem with "labeling."

Yes.

I do, however, see the efficacy in bringing live food into my body for fuel (plant-based of course). I do eat cooked food as well. But I endeavor to eat "live" food everyday. It seems logical that it has life force. It seems logical that cooked food is "dead."

Ooohh wait! I just got it! Yes... live food has "life force". But dead food does not have "dead force". Eating only dead food is harmful to the body because of the lack of life force... not because the dead food is inherently harmful. (I mean, really is a bowl of crushed lentil soup harmful? I know some will say yes.)

Yes... this gets right back to the Jains. There are actually two different, but similar, ideas which run through Indian culture.

One is karma. That is the one most of us know about where karma is kind of like a charge upon one's experience. It is just the natural balancing mechanism of the universe. When we learn to act with balance in all things, then we have liberated ourselves from the "wheel of karma" and no longer require incarnation.

The other is called karman. With an "n". The doctrine of karman says that there is actually some kind of "defiling substance" or "uncleanliness" that becomes physically attached to the body when committing certain acts (including eating "unclean" foods). This karman is supposedly what is keeping us "imprisoned" here in our bodies.

What would you say about these?